How to become an Authorized /\/\ Dealer?

[thespoon]

I've been repairing Motorolas for my Volunteer Fire Dept. for 10 years now. About three years ago the word got out and I now have more business than ever from every fire, ems and law enforcement agency around. I currently have an account (about 4 years now) with /\/\ through the fire dept. and subscribe to the software and buy parts but not too much of a break off list. I've invested $$$$$$$$$$$$$ with them, and now when I want to become a dealer, the local rep says NO (in a shitty way I might add)! That forced me to another brand and I've been a Maxon Dealer (and now Midland) for a couple years and have been converting people over left and right. The /\/\ Dealer who claims this area is 68 miles away (one way) and has no local shop here where you can even leave a radio to be picked up, much less program or fix it, so it comes to me anyway. I finally got in touch with the local rep's boss (1st /\/\ said he didn't have one, yeah right, everybody has a boss) and sent him a request registered mail after speaking with him on the phone. I sent him a pettition with 30 of my customers' signatures and phone #'s as no one here except for one police dept. uses the supposed "Local Dealer", ya know, the one 68 miles away. Can anyone here give me some advice? I have not received an answer to the letter I sent to Atlanta and he signed for it on 10/07/2003. It's a shame you have to beg somebody to sell their product. There are a lot of people, including me, that likes Motorola and when we buy we buy out of State. I just want the money to stay here in the area so I can sell at a decent price since all VFD's have the same problem, we're broke!

Dave
Authorized Maxon/Midland Dealer
Hopefully Motorola, soon to come.

[thespoon]

Wouldn't you know, a few hours after my post, I get a response today in the mail saying that he would review my case with the local rep. He even said he would come to meet me personally and talk face to face. Maybe things are looking up. What do you dealers out there think? I'm not trying to steal or invade anyone's business here since people already use me for service and buy radios out of state. Besides, the dealer who claims this area also has 4 other stores in the northern part of the state which covers a lot of territory. I just want a small piece of the pie, no ice cream!

Dave

[kmoose]

Dave,

Unfortunately (if you are NOT a Murderola Dealer/Service Station), bog M does a good job of protecting the business of the current dealers. (Which is good, if you ARE a dealer/service station) I know that you are going to say that no one is using them anyway. But look at it from M's perspective. Two way Dealers can push any manufacturer they choose to. If they have an issue with, say, B/K? They start steering all of their customers toward Motorola, and vice versa. So the big M is going to do all that they can reasonably do, to keep their dealers happy and pushing the M brand name. This includes being picky about who else gets to sell/service in that area. We are trying to become a Motorola Service Station right now, as well. Bearcom is the big boy in town, and I don't think we have much of a chance. Bearcom is a nationwide outfit, and sells lots of M products. So why take the chance of pi$$ing them off, by making them compete with us for repair business? I don't much like it, either, but it is a fact of business. You can at least be thankful that Motorola will allow you a parts account. Many avioincs manufacturers are going to the philosophy that they will not even sell you replacement parts, unless you are a dealer.

[Monty]

Hi Dave:

In response to your Request to become a
authroized dealer ?

Recommendation:

Don't do it !, and here are a few reasons why

1. Very little profit ! ( 20 ~ 25 % at best ! ) AND most customers know how to look around for a out of state dealer, and they sell for about 5% or less over their cost to " Capture " a deal !

They are restricted to their area ! And the reason why is that
Motorola does not want you ( or anyone else ) overlaping a
Sales arera.

2. Once you become a Authorized Dealer, you are almost screwed
to the wall with all kinds of restrictions of what you can / cannot
sell ! Sometimes they make it impossible to operate.

3. Wholesale Parts from Motorola these days ? Horse***t, I mean Non-Sense most Motorola Wholesale prices are about 300 % over retail. I have complained about that for years !

Only advantage here is you can " Order " Just about everything
from one Location....Due to the Prices, I have been forced to go
OEM on most of my purchases of small parts.

I think they could care less, since they are moving away from
selling individule parts anyway....They rather sell you a entire
Mic, than to offer a replacement PTT lever, and in several cases
they Ultra-Sonically Weld the Case together making it impossible
to fix.

But, I still buy from my Mother Company and Suport it 100%
" Only " due to the PAST quality of Motorola Products. Although
I am sure many are happy and pleased with the performance
of the Computer with the Radio option, I for one still
like a " Proven Perfomer " radios that sounds like a radio, not
like a Dixie Cup with a string between them.

4. Being a dealer does not give you a "Tactical Advantage "; on
the flipside , it gives you a dissadvantage

5. One of the Biggest Problems ? " Sales Quotas " YOU MUST
be able to sell 50,000.00 sometimes 100,000.00 worth of product
" EVERY YEAR " ( Period ) or they will pull your dealership from
you ( Me....? I say Great !, No more Sales Quotas, No more Business
Restrictions, No more hassles, and all one really needs is a NSO
Account so you can buy those products from Motorola that are
specialized.

6. And not let us forget ! You Must have a Store Front, Be in a
good location to give /\/\ Free Advertising, Counter help, preferably
a Good Technician or 2, a business License, be able to pay the Utilities, Phone Bill, Rent / lease, and wa-la, all on a 5 ~ 10 Profit
Margin......Again, Non-Sense !

Let see how this works....Sell 100,000.00 worth of product, over
a 12 month period. ( For a small Shop ) Make 10% " Gross Profit " works out to be 10,000.00. Most Business Operations run about
1000.00 per month ( Average ) so at the end of the year ? your
lost 2000.00.....Only advantage here....you write it off on your
Sch C Tax Form.

OH, if your customer does not like the product ? gets stuck
with returning the Radios for Firmware upgrades, or RSS issues,
guess who gets stuck with shipping costs? You Do !

The only real way of doing business with /\/\ is to have gross
sales in excess of 500,000.00 to over a million a year, and have
the Captial to back it up.....

Anyhow, its a hot subject with me, time to close....There are more
reasons, but I will let you figure them out.

Monty

[xmo]

Summary of Monty's post:

How to be a Motorola dealer and wind up with a small fortune?


Start with a large one.

[Cowthief]

Hello.

You could do what bearcom did.
They simply bought a dealership.
Bearcom is an example of how to do things, and make a profit.
I now have very good relations with bearcom, after some real screw-ups.
And, yes, OEM parts are a LOT cheaper for the current radios.
For the older stuff, I use MLM a lot.

[Station House Products]

Store front my ass! (Sorry Monty, I had to relate this one!) Had a couple of fellas that bought a Radius dealer in NJ (Riely Communications) FOUR! years after the owner passed away and the shop had stopped selling anything! They brought the store from 2 counties away to Sussex County and operate it OUT OF THIER GARAGE!!!!! Mother /\/\ even went so far as to give them the Pro Line when they asked for it!

When the local dealer in Sussex Cty. complained, they were basicly told TOUGH (but in a nice way) The dealer in Sussex is owned by the same dealer in Morris Cty. and does in the 7 digit numbers between the 2 stores. The new shop in the garage is less than 15 miles from either the Sussex or Morris shops in either direction. How's that for Motorola taking care of thier dealers!?!?!?

Bad enough the dealerships license (Riely Comm.) was'nt pulled in the first place for no sales, but to allow it to move that far, into another dealer's territory, out of a garage, AND to give them a larger line to sell, well that just shows how a$$ backwards they are when they want to be!

[thespoon]

Thanks for the replies guys. Everything you stated Monty I've heard before so it must be true. They expect you to do a certain amount of sales but I did not realize the profit margin was so low. If they are looking for a big storefront for advertiseing when they visit I'm S.O.L. I live in a rural setting and although my shop is brand new and a good size with 2 service bays it is not inside a City. My son will graduate in May so 2 techs is not a problem. As you stated I've noticed most /\/\ dealers are quite large and the one that claims this area is no different. As I stated they have 4 stores in 4 rather large cities. I did not realize it would be such a pain in the a$$ to become a dealer and stay one. I just thought it would be more convienent to be able to sell /\/\ products direct rather than my customers having to buy a radio out of state in their name (to avoid the stupid back door policy) and then bring it to me for programming and service. The HT-1250 is the big seller here and it would be almost impossible to set all the MDC and Quick Call II setups over the phone from where the radio was purchased. Maybe I need to take your advice Monty and keep it as is. My Daddy always told me "Son, you can't fight City Hall".

Thanks,

Dave

[RADIOMAN2002]

When it comes to being a M dealer, money talks BS walks. M will let anybody sell anywhere if it makes them MONEY. A dealer from NYC sets up shop less than 5 mi from an established dealer, and guess what M tells the old boy, TS. Also the line about selling areas. First it's against Federal law to limit the sales of any legal product. Right now an old friend of mine is sueing M in Federal court for that very reason. Yea they pull you dealership. while you fight it, but M in the end WILL lose. I wouldn't give M the time of day. I found the money with Public Safety is in service, good service. Thats the reason you have more bussiness than you can handle. That M's problem, they don't have good techs, and the only bend over backward, and send in the FTR, if it affects a big sale, and only till the sale is through, unless you are Con-Ed or some other big boy. My recommendation, is tell your Agencies to get the best deal they can wherever they can, and you will program it, install it, and repair it. If its a warrantee problem, send it back to the person they bought it from, and give them the headache.

[Tron]

From my observations /\/\ has to be in the top 10 of backwards companies in the world when it comes to selling and increasing sales..to say nothing of production of their fine software. Now they wonder why they are financial trouble. Duhhh Can't feel bad for them.

Over the years, IMO, with a more enlightened dealer and sales strategy, they could have easily quadrupled their sales and profits. It it any wonder why there are so many other choices in the market place these days?

Unfortunately, they are going to have to hit the skids before anyone wakes up in Schaumburg.

TRon

[thespoon]

First it's against Federal law to limit the sales of any legal product. Right now an old friend of mine is sueing M in Federal court for that very reason. Yea they pull you dealership. while you fight it, but M in the end WILL lose.

Has anyone you know challenged the "Back Door Policy" (punishing a Motorola Dealer for selling radios to another non dealer company for resale) Motorola has and won? Most of my customers do not mind buying from another out of state dealer and me taking over from there. I spent about 8 hours writing a complicated MDC, Emergency, and ANI system for my area. So far the dealer has done everything to get a copy of the codeplug to no avail because everyone hates how they took us on the repeater system they installed about 6 years ago and still won't work. That's one reason I need to be "Authorized" is politics. The County will only let an authorized dealer work on the Motorola repeater system and he's the only one around. The County pays mileage (136 miles) and travel time to change a couple radio I.D.'s just because he's "Authorized". If I can get that contract it will mean maintenence on 6 repeaters and about 100 County radios. I have sold them some Maxon portables with scramble so I have my foot in the door but my a$$ is still outside.

Dave

[Radioshop]

Motorola requires all dealers to provide them with their customer data base. You have to do it through a program called Impact21. With this program Motorola list radios you brought by Model# and Ser.# and you you indacate what customer brought what from you. This is all done on their data base call Impact21. This program is the only way you will get the so called speical deale from Big "M".
I know were are a Big "M" dealer

[Cowthief]

Hello.

We HAD such a rule in Bexar county Texas.
The district court ruled it violated free trade.
Harris county also had such a rule, but has since gone to type IIi trunking, so the issue is moot.
The real issue is, can a public entity restrict a contract based only on a relationship with a private company.
The answer is no, this clearly violates open and competitive bidding, as is required by federal law.
This is not to say you can not have a private group or company that you are required to be a member of, but if this is the case, anybody qualified must be able to join at an equal level.
If you have an FCC first 'phone ( Now FCC general ), you would be able to make a very easy argument.
As far as selling radios outside the "market", bearcom has a really neat webpage, you can buy almost anything.
/\/\ also likes to cut deals on bids, so, you can have a 200 unit order, for example, and price it based on brand X radio, then call big /\/\ up.
/\/\ hates to not win a contract, that is why Houston Texas got the new radios so cheap, and I mean cheap!

[RapidCharger]

Anyone know if Kenwood and Icom are the same way?

I inquired about becoming a midland dealer and my inquiries remained un-queried. It seems like they want their dealers in small towns (judging by the dealer locations list)

As far as the storefront thing goes, I think what Monty meant was you gotta have some commercial location. The two closest MSS to me are in dumpy warehouses. One is in a tiny freestanding building which almost looks like a Volunteer Firehouse in a very small town. But then again, both are for companies that have multiple locations.

Good luck with it though, personally, I would just sell Kenwood equipment from what I hear it's more profitable. A business without profit is a just a hobby.

[thespoon]

Hi Rapid Charger,

I had the same thing happen to me with Midland when I applied for a dealership, they never answered. At the time I was a Maxon Dealer and when Midland bought out and merged with Topaz3 they were nice enough to let Maxon Dealers come on board as Midland dealers. The Maxon division stayed pretty much in tact as far as my person I order from and get tech support. They still sell the same way with price breaks for the more you buy, Midland gives the same price to all Dealers with no quantity break that I know of. Give them a call again and ask them what happened. They are a good company to deal with and have a good product line across the board. You can then get your Maxon Dealership, again, a good company to deal with and products are beginning to get better with more radio options such as built in encode and decode portables. If I can help, give me an e-mail. Good Luck!

Dave

[Bat2way]

Just recommending what Monte said. Keep doing what you're doing. If desired, Motorola can name you a "Preferred Service Center" rather than a full-blown MSS due to your remote location from any existing MSS. That shouldn't be a problem with a competent M rep.

I tried to do the same thing you did a few years ago, but to make it short, finally realized I was getting all the business I could stand from the local MSS due to their extremely poor service and "care less" attitude. I have a large base of repeat customers thanks to them. By the way, this same MSS closed two of it's locations this year, letting 14 people go. I only service Motorola and still have all I can do.

[thespoon]

Hi Bat2way, you hit the nail on the head! That's exactly what I have here when you stated "I was getting all the business I could stand from the local MSS due to their extremely poor service and "care less" attitude. I have a large base of repeat customers thanks to them". So do you let your customers buy out of state and bring to you, or is there a way to buy direct under the "Preferred Service Center" you mentioned. Thanks for your input!

Dave

[afterimage84]

you could call bearcom and become a "partner". it's like an agent of the company or essentially you would be an outside salesman...just doing it from your shop. they also make it much more profitable. they have a LOT of issues internally but u wouldn't be dealing with that. thats what i would do. the money is in service though...this is true so keep it up!

[mavericknet]

I bought a batch or radios on more that one occasion from a dealer from outside the state and sold them locally because my local M dealer (5 miles away) is the worst thing I can imagine. I have been doing that for quite some time, and I am to guess that's illegal in some way?

We need someone else here, desperatly, they're mean... they threaten their customers, and for the most part they seem to have no clue what they're doing, they shorted out the ABS system in one of our vehicles doing a mobile radio SWAP! I had been working pretty well with the local departments, but the town repeater systems were aging fast, they handed the keys to the kingdom off to this gentleman that is associated with the local M dealer. WE are getting shafted! BAD! Is there anyway to have the dealer dethroned? They pulled our 40 watt maxtracs and replaced with poorly programmed 25 watt CDMs, then locked the codeplugs. No scan, no home key, too many damn frequencies, poorly named alpha tags.... The town will only deal with authorized manufacturer representatives, what are we supposed to do out here. My company is registered for parts now, I'm moving to get the CDM/HT Series CPS... what else can I do in this type of situation, I have people approacing me who are actually starting to be afraid for their safety.

[tom IL]

If your not a M dealer you won't get the CDM/HT software. I tried, they said they are not selling that software to any one but dealers.

[thespoon]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If your not a M dealer you won't get the CDM/HT software. I tried, they said they are not selling that software to any one but dealers.

The only exception to that rule is if you are a non-profit organization like a VFD with a stack of paperwork to prove it and you do your own repairs they will sell it to you. You can also then buy repair parts as well. If you are non-profit and tax exempt they even ship for free. Taking this into effect they may still have hope to turn things around. mavericknet, I know what you are going through. The local /\/\ guy switches stuff off of our fire repeater to fix the sheriffs' stuff all the time. Nothing is ever said when we complain. Same old same old, VFD's are right down there with snake spit!

Dave

[Will]

BearComm IS one of the biggest WHORES in the radio business. The sell radios to anyone without reguard to what frequencies the radios are put(programmed?) on. Seems BearComm has no reguard for the FCC rules. We have traced most of the interference to PS and other services to BearComm radios programmend on frequencies the users should not ever be on, PS, GMRS, Ham, you name it. And the radios from BearComm are not on frequency tollarence and the deviation were NEVER checked as required in the FCC rules.

Just last week Bank of America center was "busted" and the radios, repeater and programming were done by BearComm, go figure.

[thespoon]

Thanks for all the help, but the more I dig, the worse things get! Boy, /\/\ sure has some stroke when it comes to their policies. No wonder the big dealers are a$$ holes and won't work with you on prices of radios and decent service. Motorola gives them a liscense to steal by being the only game in town and it seems to come down to the almighty dollar! I think some of the Motorola high ups should have to serve on a small VFD and try to fit their F.F>'s with communication equipment, gear, truck notes, insurance, gas, utilities and everything else on a $20,000.00 TOTAL BUDGET for 30 people GIVING up their free time! I think that would open their eyes. But then again, it might mean giving up the condo in Colorado and the 1/4 million $$ year end bonus. JMO.

[Quarterwave]

I enjoyed reading all the responses. I used to work for a large dealer group and this was like deja vu! I got out of the business, although I repair and sell lots of M equipment online now as a hobby. I chose to go to work in corporate administration in the Telcom industry instead. I was a facility manager for a MSS for several years (service and sales) and did EVERYTHING.
I love the business, I just hated THIER business, if you know what I mean. It seems alot of the MSS groups are still owned by the old timers (that started with M in the 60's) and now their sons and daughters. These folks tend to follow the continuing business philosiphies that M has, also very 60's like. The fact is, the world has changed, we have the internet (thanks Al! HA! ) and a more mobile and global society as well as business. M hangs on to its protection and ways of keeping down folks that could put money in their pockets. They have been that way for years, they were always interested in the big customers, but wouldn't do much for the FD that wanted to order up 3 new radios a year. I could bust the guys I used to work for wide open and kill thier business with half the operating budget, and they could KEEP thier 3 big customers here. Thats all that pays thier bills anyway, they snub the little guys. If you don't want to be on thier UHF trunk or ASTRO system and buy 100 radios, you are wasting thier time. I specialize in VHF / UHF conventional in my now-hobby and have plenty to do. Not everything in the world needs to be, will be or can afford to be on some trunking system!!! dang it!!!

I feel your pain, you might be better off hooking up with some out of state full dealer and getting a deal on parts and such. Stick with selling the other brands of new equipment. I love my M equipment, I still reccomend it, but I too might buy a couple of those new KW 3160's for my UHF repeaters I own.

My motto: When you are done wasting money and time on digital, go analog! It worked 50 years ago and it works today. I'll be talking while you are rebooting your Central Controller!

Later!

[Cowthief]

Hello.

Yes, I agree, bearcom has some problems, but ARE changing business practice, at least in Houston.
And, YES, YES, motorola wants the big accounts, the police departments, the government, and will cut a deal, if need be, to get there.
Motorola has the funny headsets for the NFL, why? because it makes them money in the end.
/\/\ supports nexthell, because, it makes them money.
A rural fire department, like was pointed out, has very little money.

[afterimage84]

.

[Bat2way]

Spoon, Forgot to mention I don't do ANY Public Safety work. No 24 hour service nor the hassles associated with it. I two-step radios when my customers ask me to provide one.

[thespoon]

Thanks to all who have replied, I've learned a lot! I'm going to let the /\/\ gentleman in Atlanta do whatever he plans to do and let it play out as to what limitations and sales goals or whatever else they require play out. I will post the results as soon as it is all over. He stated in his letter dated 10/13/03 "I will be taking up your request in the next 30 days". Stand by for the final outcome and again, THANKS! In the meantime, keep the comments coming, so I will be prepared to make an informed decision.

Dave